migrate forums to vanilla or discourse
Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2014 8:13 am
It isn't hugely crucial but it could be nice to update LM to a newer forum software. Vanilla and Discourse are both quite modern in terms of layout, feel and organization.
https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-is-wr ... pbb/3763/5
features I agree with:
* homepage layout shows all posts in time order. When I'm on LM I usually head straight to "view unread posts". It's definitely useful to categorize especially when you're browsing the forum for old topics but I think that is more of an archival, secondary-usage feature (vanilla and discourse make categories just as accessible anyway).
* username referencing. Instead of quoting someone and hoping they read your reply you can @user and they will be notified automatically.
* tags. can be useful for very simple things like tagging [help] posts. Also can improve searching, so querying "carla" would return posts tagged "carla" before posts that just happen to mention carla in passing.
* markdown. Discourse has this builtin and vanilla has a markdown plugin (phpbb has a markdown plugin too). Everyone else is doing it (because it's great) and so should we!
* mobile support. I like to check LM on my phone.
some drawbacks:
* discourse is written in ruby so the hosting provider needs to support that
* not everyone likes vanilla
I think discourse seems a little cooler (shinier?) than vanilla, but either one could be neat. They both have phpbb import tools which would ease the migration process. phpbb just feels a tad bit dated cluttered and clunky to me.
https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-is-wr ... pbb/3763/5
features I agree with:
* homepage layout shows all posts in time order. When I'm on LM I usually head straight to "view unread posts". It's definitely useful to categorize especially when you're browsing the forum for old topics but I think that is more of an archival, secondary-usage feature (vanilla and discourse make categories just as accessible anyway).
* username referencing. Instead of quoting someone and hoping they read your reply you can @user and they will be notified automatically.
* tags. can be useful for very simple things like tagging [help] posts. Also can improve searching, so querying "carla" would return posts tagged "carla" before posts that just happen to mention carla in passing.
* markdown. Discourse has this builtin and vanilla has a markdown plugin (phpbb has a markdown plugin too). Everyone else is doing it (because it's great) and so should we!
* mobile support. I like to check LM on my phone.
some drawbacks:
* discourse is written in ruby so the hosting provider needs to support that
* not everyone likes vanilla
I think discourse seems a little cooler (shinier?) than vanilla, but either one could be neat. They both have phpbb import tools which would ease the migration process. phpbb just feels a tad bit dated cluttered and clunky to me.